Portfolio at NYU

Posted 03.30.03
Cox Outraces Hype, Hastings

By Erik Boland

January 12, 2003 — Throughout most of the day at the Armory Track and Field Center, Shana Cox separated herself from the buzz and hype surrounding the anticipated girls 200-meter final of yesterday's Hispanic Games that matched her and Natasha Hastings.

Cox set a national record in the 300 meters with a 37.59 at the Loughlin Games on Dec. 21. The previous record (37.77) was held by Hastings of A.P. Randolph. The two had set records, but not against each other. In track circles, the race was taking on heavyweight boxing overtones. Hastings. Cox. Saturday night. Be there, at the Armory.

"I tried to exclude myself from all of that," Cox said. "I didn't even watch most of the meet during the day. I was either downstairs by myself or stretching or running."

The meet started at 9 a.m. and Cox, immersed in what she called her prerace "daze" to focus, missed all of the excitement leading up to the 200, scheduled for early evening. At 25 minutes to 8, she emerged fresh, focused and ready to create her own excitement.

Surviving a sluggish start - "My starts are never that good," Cox said, - the Holy Trinity senior led Hastings from beginning to end, albeit barely, in front of a capacity crowd of nearly 5,000 that had the Armory shaking on its ancient moorings. Cox finished in 24.08, Hastings in 24.51.

"I wasn't taking this as intensely as everyone else," Cox said. "This wasn't a big race. It was just another race. The big races are at the end of the season."

After some prodding, Cox said the talk of a possible Hastings victory motivated her, but only to a point. She sees her real opponent as the clock. Cox admits, while racing, to perhaps stealing a glance at the clock, always gauging the possibility of setting a record.

"Breaking a record, it's the only thing you should think about. It helps you run fast," the Penn State-bound Cox said. "I was kind of disappointed that I didn't get it today but my first four or five steps . . . I think I came out too fast and almost tripped myself."

While Cox saw the Hispanic Games as a run-of-the-mill meet, confident her abilities would do her talking, Sayville's Brian Dalpiaz approached the boys mile with a somewhat different mentality. Since coming back from an emergency appendectomy in August, Dalpiaz has faced something somewhat differently. Dalpiaz isn't used to losing - he couldn't recall losing a race his junior season - but he finished second his first two races this year and lost a crossover race to Northport's Kevin Tschirhart.

"I was motivated after last Sunday," Dalpiaz said. "I knew he was going to be in today's race."

Tschirhart kept pace with Dalpiaz for much of this race, occasionally pulling in front and even taking a slight lead as the two turned for the backstretch. Before the two runners hit the final turn, Dalpiaz was several strides in front. He crossed the finish line in a meet-record 4:14.52. Tschirhart finished in 4:16.77.

"I feel I'm just about all the way back physically. But mentally, I'm not sure I'm as confident as I used to be," Dalpiaz said. "Today definitely helped."

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